All trucks include a driver's cab, or cab, from which the truck's driver operates the vehicle. Many trucks include a sleeper box, or sleeper, positioned behind the cab. The sleeper is a separate compartment typically large enough to house a bed or bunk and thereby functions as a sleeping or resting place. The sleeper typically has a door on the driver's side of the vehicle and a step assembly directly below it. The step assembly is commonly mounted on a fuel tank. The opposite side of the truck commonly includes a fuel tank without a step assembly. The truck cab has a pair of doors, beneath each door is a step assembly.
The step assemblies and fuel tanks create air turbulence and thereby reduce fuel efficiency. Moreover, they are unsightly. One way of streamlining this section of the truck has been disclosed in a prior art truck which incorporates a cab skirt fairing assembly which extends all the way across the spaces between its step arrangements, fender and fuel tanks.
The aforementioned prior art truck does not address an integral problem associated with a cab skirt fairing which extends to cover the region below the sleeper. In such a situation, the cab skirt must be attached at different positions along the length of the truck. Thus, while the truck is in motion, the cab skirt will be exposed to a variety of destructive forces. For instance, if the truck collides with an object on the road, say a pot hole, the frame of the truck will twist, compelling a twisting of a fairing panel. That is, there will be a twisting action between the region of the fairing panel connected near the cab and the region of the fairing panel connected near the sleeper. In particular, the twisting occurs along the longitudinal axis of the truck and in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal axis.
Another type of destructive force is that which results when panels are exposed to differential forces in a direction perpendicular to the road. This familiar up-down motion of a truck tends to compel a twisting and vibrating of the fairing panel.
Another problem arises from the need for having the fairing panel fixedly attached at its distal end. Since the fairing panel is connected to the step, the panel must withstand any motion imparted to the step. This fixed attachment also results in the destructive consequences associated with the panel being forced to absorb the vibrations of the object to which the panel is connected.
These individual forces act cumulatively to damage, and eventually destroy, the connected fairing panels which make up the cab skirt.